In December 2012, fisherman Jose Salvador Alvarenga left the coast of Mexico in a small fiberglass fishing boat.

The trip was supposed to last about a day.

Alvarenga and a younger fishing partner pushed off to check shark nets several miles offshore. Weather conditions began to change shortly after they reached open water.

The storm arrived faster than expected.

Wind intensified. Waves built. The small boat lost power and began drifting away from the coast. Attempts to restart the motor failed.

The shoreline disappeared.

Fishing boats are designed to work close to land. Without a functioning engine, the vessel had no way to return.

Days turned into weeks.

The two men began adapting to the situation as best they could. According to Reuters reporting, they collected rainwater when storms passed through. They caught fish, turtles, and seabirds with their hands and improvised tools.

Food was not the only problem.

Exposure, isolation, and uncertainty began to weigh heavily on the men.

Months passed without contact with another vessel. Their boat drifted deeper into the Pacific.

Alvarenga’s fishing partner eventually died during the ordeal.

Alvarenga continued alone.

He developed a system for staying alive. Rainwater became the main source of drinking water. Raw fish and birds provided food. He used whatever he could find on the boat to store water and protect himself from the sun.

The drift continued.

Ocean currents slowly carried the small boat thousands of miles west across the Pacific.

In January 2014, more than a year after leaving Mexico, the boat finally reached land on a coral atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Alvarenga walked onto shore and encountered the residents of the island. He was severely dehydrated but alive.

Local authorities confirmed the timeline of the ordeal. The drift had lasted more than 13 months.

The boat that left the Mexican coast expecting a single day at sea had crossed the Pacific Ocean.

There was no rescue mission guiding the vessel.

There was only one person left on board keeping himself alive.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga survived more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean after his fishing boat lost power during a storm.

That is what he did.

It is worth noticing because survival in open ocean conditions depends on continuous adaptation. Food, water, and shelter must be improvised repeatedly over time.

He did not control the currents or the direction of the drift.

He controlled the decision to continue solving the next problem in front of him.

A fishing trip turned into an ocean crossing.

One man remained alive when the boat reached shore.

That changed what happened next.

If you were alone in a survival situation that could last months instead of days, how long would it take before you stopped thinking about rescue and focused only on the next problem to solve?